3.5 stars. This was a solid, super fun read. Light and fluffy, easy to get through so it was a great palate cleanser after having a book hangover from The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Millie and her friend group were the perfect cure.
Millie and her group of guy friends all work at UC Santa Barbara as professors/researchers and they’re all single. When a fancy university event looms on the horizon, they make a pact to all get dates for it by joining an online dating service. Millie matches with one of the group, Reid, except her profile is semi-anonymous and Reid doesn’t know he’s talking to Millie. Also they’ve been having sexy times on the side without anyone knowing, so things get convoluted really quickly. Millie finds herself being able to open up emotionally with the cloak of anonymity in a way she’s never been able to do in real life so she lets the charade go on for way too long.
Even with people making bad choices right and left, Christina Lauren make the characters likeable enough to stick with them and even root for them. Even more than rooting for the main romance, it’s just fun to spend time with a group of friends like this. It’s kind of like in While You Were Sleeping when you fall in love with the family group as a whole, not just the main couple. But like, that movie is a classic so maybe don’t expect quite that level of swoon/awesome if you pick this up. Just expect a fun, easily digestible romance.
Steaminess factor: 2 out of 5 eggplants